Water-Reducing Jeans Production

Under their Water

Published by

Apr 20. 2017

As part of the company’s sustainability focus, Levi Strauss & Co’s Water<Less collection focuses on reducing the amount of water needed to produce jeans, right from cotton production to the sales room. The company has performed two life cycle assessments on their products, and estimate to have saved over a billion liters of freshwater through a number of initiatives.

Just for perspective, that’s about enough water saved to provide drinking water for the city of New York for more than a month. It’s not inconsequential, that’s a lot of water.

Chip BerghPresident and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.

At the farm level, the company invests in farmers registered with the Better Cotton Initiative, who use up to 18% less water on their farms. At the production level, the Water<Less scheme uses up to 96% less water in the finishing processes by recycling and reusing water. The company have made these water saving innovations publically available, encouraging industry-wide participation in water saving.

Why you should care

From start to finish, the average pair of jeans requires 7,000 liters of water per life cycle. Considering cotton farms are often found in water stressed regions of the world, this is a serious threat to the freshwater needs of agriculture, sanitation, drinking water and other industries. Levi Strauss & Co claim to have cut that figure to 3,781 liters for a regular pair by using responsibly farmed cotton and innovative production technologies, while savings for the Water<Less jeans are substantially higher.

HOW THE GLOBAL GOALS ARE ADDRESSED

Clean water and sanitation

The company claims to have saved over one billion liters of water through their commitments to water savings, and aim to increase the share of their Water<Less products across their entire range to 80% by 2020.

Decent work and economic growth

Levi Strauss & Co’s ‘Worker Well-being’ programme, operational in 12 countries, is impacting nearly 100,000 workers. The initiative creates sustainable business and social benefits at all levels of the supply chain, according to the company.

Responsible consumption and production

By reducing water consumption across the whole lifecycle of a pair jeans, Levi Strauss & Co are making strides to make their production processes more sustainable.

Life below water

Levi Strauss & Co were one of the first companies to create a restricted substances list, and aims to achieve zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020, helping to protect life under water, where the chemicals usually accumulate.

GLOBAL GOALS ADDRESSED

The company claims to have saved over one billion liters of water through their commitments to water savings, and aim to increase the share of their Water<Less products across their entire range to 80% by 2020.

Levi Strauss & Co’s ‘Worker Well-being’ programme, operational in 12 countries, is impacting nearly 100,000 workers. The initiative creates sustainable business and social benefits at all levels of the supply chain, according to the company.

By reducing water consumption across the whole lifecycle of a pair jeans, Levi Strauss & Co are making strides to make their production processes more sustainable.

Levi Strauss & Co were one of the first companies to create a restricted substances list, and aims to achieve zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020, helping to protect life under water, where the chemicals usually accumulate.